Note that you could also substitute "seeing" for "I saw" in the first example. The second version makes it explicit that you didn't study English again after some point in time, which may or may not be important. I had studied English since seeing my English teacher.īoth versions are still slightly awkward and could be polished to sound a little more natural, but they are grammatically correct and make clear that "studied" was in the past and happened after seeing your teacher. I studied English since I saw my English teacher. The natural way to express that would be either Even if it is technically correct (and I'm not sure whether it is), it is an unnecessary complexity of tenses that doesn't sound right to the ear of a native speaker. I'm not sure whether it actually breaks any grammar rules, but "I had studied" and "since I saw" don't seem to go together. Sentence 1 is on the right track, but awkward. It becomes a stumbling block because it seems out of place. If your visitation history is relevant, using "had" there doesn't adequately convey that because there's no obvious connection, so it interferes in the sense that it makes the reader stop and wonder why "had" is there is there some additional meaning that they're missing. My reading of your original sentence is that this visitation history is unnecessary to your point the only relevance of seeing your teacher is that it happened before you studied English. Your history of visitation with your teacher is an unrelated subject, so if it is important to include it in the same sentence, it needs to be more of a stand-alone thought that you connect. I had studied English after seeing my English teacher, who I haven't seen since, by the way. If it is additional information you're trying to convey, it would be better to be more explicit: In your example, it might be true that you also haven't seen your teacher again since then, but that isn't really the point of the sentence. The only reason to use "had" rather than simply past tense ("I studied English", "I saw my teacher"), is if that status is important. "Had " means it happened in the past but not anymore. However, you're relating the two things in a single sentence, so there is some influence due to the context they are not completely independent. Each is a separate event, so to some extent, the tenses used can be different and specific to the event, it is not a case of parallel construction. You are talking about two events, studying English and seeing your teacher, and you are trying to relate them in time and characterize them. However, I can't envision a scenario in which sentence 2 would be good. As mentioned in comments, more context is needed.
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